NBC Sports has issued an apology to subscribers of their NBC Sports Gold service after the debacle that occurred Saturday, which resulted in a major online outage at the same time that Manchester United played away against Southampton.

“We apologize for the disruptions and inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding as we continue to look for new ways to bring you the best sports content in the world,” NBC Sports wrote in an e-mail to NBC Sports Gold subscribers.

The outage Saturday caused fans of Premier League clubs in the US to flock to social media to vent their anger at NBC Sports. The NBC Sports Gold exclusive of Southampton-Manchester United had to be moved to a free NBCSports.com stream along with several other Premier League games.

“We experienced intermittent technical issues over the past two weekends on NBC Sports Gold,” continued NBC Sports. “Like you, we’re major fans of Premier League and our aim is to bring you the best experience possible. We haven’t done that.”

NBC Sports offered NBC Sports Gold subscribers an opportunity for a refund or credit to resolve the situation.

When World Soccer Talk asked what was the cause of the outage as well as what plans are in place to make sure the outages don’t happen again, a NBC Sports spokesman said, “While our conversations with vendors are confidential, we acknowledge the issues. We have tried to make it right with our customers and are working diligently to improve. No one is more disappointed and frustrated by the issues than we are.”

For supporters of Premier League clubs, the next selection of games available exclusively via NBC Sports Gold will be announced within the next 24-48 hours. As soon as we find out the schedule, we’ll post it on our Premier League schedule page.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

17 Comments

Donkey Hot3ySeptember 25, 2017

Too late. We all discovered how to watch elsewhere for free. Now that I know how, I’m unlikely to want to pay for a service that they formerly gave at no charge.

It’s not just this issue, my local NBC affiliate KARE 11 did not show the Leicester City vs Liverpool match on Saturday, instead there was a cooking show. I had to watch it in Spanish on NBC Universo. NBC Sports EPL coverage still has issues to work on. I would never give it an A as a passing grade, rather a C+

Yup. Apparently they had to preempt it for Kids/education shows. There is golf on next week. I was told the FCC mandate certain hours of kids shows. This was the only slot available apparently….
We watched it on NBC Universo.

If they would have simply kept the Extra Time channels–and offered the $50 sign-up fee through the cable/satellite provider that would grant access to those channels and streaming (while also offering it as a stand-alone streaming package)–the issues would not be nearly as infuriating.

And it would eliminate the problem of not being able to start a game midway through without having the score spoiled, as you could still use the old-fashioned DVR method. (Well, if you can manage to avoid seeing the score and rewinding to the beginning online, your stream will eventually be cut off before you finish–and then you have to wait for the replay to be posted.) I don’t mind paying for services that are worth the investment–I’ve subscribed to MLB.tv and NHL Gamecenter/NHL.tv for several years now, and those have both been set up over all these years to allow users to choose the option to always start the stream from the beginning. Why can’t NBC Sports do the same?

I am not sure how it is delivered on a Roku or AppleTV, but using Flash to deliver the content does not help. It is outdated, full of bugs, and security holes.

That doesn’t sound like it was the problem this time (e.g., AppleTV does not use Flash), but they really need to get rid of that.

Of course, if anyone thinks this is bad, ever try BeIn Connect (or BeIn Disconnect). Again, another streaming service using dated tech (Silverlight). Fortunately, via fubo, those channels are much more watchable.

I don’t understand why it’s so difficult to stream live content for NBC. Heck, I can find illegal streams of these matches on the Internet that thousands of people are watching. If these hacks can do it, why can’t one of the world’s largest broadcasting companies get it right???

NBC offered me $10 back with continued service or a full refund. Hopefully this mess is fixed. I used NBC Gold for the Tour de France and it worked very well. NBC Gold for EPL isn’t as bad as FS2Go (with their patented replays that would jump 50 minutes ahead… and then 49 minutes back), but it seems like they are trying to get there.

I complained and took the full refund. It’s been a terrible service so far. NBC sports apps on the Apple TV are awful in general, the FPS is painful compared to the quality of ESPN or even Fox’s app. Aside from the games, the additional programs offered are rubbish. As an Arsenal fan, it doesn’t look like they’ll have a game on Gold for a while anyway, so the service seems pointless. Should have known that a Comcast owned company would find a way to bungle this.

Remember “Soccer Sunday”? Every match being played at the same time and on channels like Bravo, Lifetime, USA, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC, NBCSN. Need I say more. Who aside from Footy Supporters, who is up that early and watching those channels in the first place?
Hey Yespage, They did the exact same thing to me, I mean verbatim. There are no technical problems with NBC Gold App and/or Web page when you sign up and give away your money, but then it all changes when you try to login to the app or the web page. NBC buying the rights to the Prem in 2012 was a blessing. Then in 2013, everyone was able to watch the premier league and in REAL HD (FOX) HAHAHA. Now 4 years later, that blessing has now turned into a curse. PUT LIVE EXTRA/EXTRA TIME BACK ON DIRECTV, COX, ETC. PLEASE!!!!!!!

As a neutral, I’m slowly watching more of the Bundesliga anyways. It really is the purest of the top 4 leagues, with entertaining high scoring footy and young hungry stars instead of the bankrolled teams and overpaid stars who play against bunkering relegation teams. And this year Dortmund is making this a fun title race!